Bird Banding Department 
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have afforded valuable data relative to their migration. The lake where 
the banding was done, Lake Scugog, is surrounded by marshes and thus 
offers excellent opportunities for the ducks to feed and rest before start- 
ing the long flight to the south. The trapping and banding was carried 
on continuously through the autumn, so that by the time the big south- 
ward movement began several hundred birds had been marked. At this 
time the season was open from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico 
and the migrating birds had to run a veritable gauntlet of sportsmen. 
A large number of “ return records ” were therefore received. 
Mallards and Black Ducks 
In tracing the route of these birds it seemed apparent that the mal- 
lards and black ducks traveled together and their course from Lake 
Scugog was southwestward along the shores of Lake Erie by way of the 
St. Clair fiats. Here the route divided, the majority continuing toward 
the southwest, cross-country to the Ohio River, hence to the Mississippi 
Valley, where many of them spent the winter. The second group, that 
parted from their fellows in the vicinity of Lake Erie, took a southeast- 
erly route, crossing the Alleghenies and reaching the Atlantic coast by 
way of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. It is interesting to note that 
although both of these ducks are present and the black duck is plentiful 
along the coast of New England, none of the birds marked at Lake Scugog 
were taken in that region. The question that naturally arises is: Where 
do those ducks come from? So far we only know that some breed in 
that area, but we do not know just where the migrating brids come from 
that use that route. . Bird banding will probably supply the answer when 
it has been applied more intensively at a larger number of stations. 
U. S'. Biol. Surv. 
